Abstract: Monitoring Editor: Karsten Weis Nucleic acids are substrates for different types of damages, but little is known about the fate of damaged RNAs. We addressed the existence of an RNA-damage response in yeast. The decay kinetics of GAL1p-driven mRNAs revealed a dose-dependent mRNA stabilization upon UV irradiation that was not observed after heat or saline shocks, or during nitrogen starvation. UV-induced mRNA stabilization did not depend on DNA repair, damage checkpoint or mRNA degradation machineries. Notably, fluorescent in situ hybridization revealed that after UV irradiation polyadenylated mRNA accumulated in cytoplasmic foci that increased in size with time. In situ colocalization showed that these foci are not P-bodies, EGP-bodies, stress granules, autophagy vesicles, or part of the secretory or endocytic pathways. These results point to the existence of a specific eukaryotic RNA-damage response, which leads to new polyadenylated mRNA-containing granules (UV-induced mRNA granules, UVG). We propose that potentially damaged mRNAs, which may be deleterious to the cell, are temporarily stored in UVG granules to safeguard cell viability.